A mystery game in visual novel format, similar to the Ace Attorney series. You are a shifter, able to assume the forms of those you make physical contact with. You are also a detective, which is why the ragtag bunch of weirdos and idiots surrounding a murder at the Annual Pickle Competition will never solve it without your help.
I made it in Ren'Py, a Python-based program made primarily for creating visual novels. It was my first time ever working in Python, so I wasted a lot of Friday learning the basics of the language. I chose Ren'Py because I knew the only way I'd manage a solo jam was if I was able to spend more time on assets and less on coding. And as I'm an author by trade, the visual novel medium seemed like the perfect choice.
Creative idea and an interesting cast of characters. I wouldn't mind seeing it edited down a lot, particularly all the "uh..." and "...". It was tedious because the text scrolled so slowly I had to click twice for every line.
Your game is really robust! A lot of dialogue and a really strong mechanic (I am yet to use menus like your transformation menu in my own work, so I'm super impressed).
The characters are bold and interesting, and I like that you've used both colour and font to denote their voice, but be careful about readability. Some of those fonts aren't very clear, and white text is easily lost against the textbox background.
I don't seem to be able to save? I get why you might implement that as an anti-cheating measure, but for a long work like this, I might want to take a break! Maybe a checkpoint system would be a good idea?
I loved the writing in this game. It was laugh-out-loud funny. However, it took a long time to get to the actual gameplay, and I didn't see any indicators for whom I could touch, causing me to strike out quickly. After I struck out, I didn't want to have to play through everything again to get to the same point. Also, some of the fonts were difficult to read. But I loved the writing. With a save system or a skip-beginning option, I would happily play the entire thing just for more pickle puns.
Comments8
Your game is really robust! A lot of dialogue and a really strong mechanic (I am yet to use menus like your transformation menu in my own work, so I'm super impressed).
The characters are bold and interesting, and I like that you've used both colour and font to denote their voice, but be careful about readability. Some of those fonts aren't very clear, and white text is easily lost against the textbox background.
I don't seem to be able to save? I get why you might implement that as an anti-cheating measure, but for a long work like this, I might want to take a break! Maybe a checkpoint system would be a good idea?